35 weeks

It seems like last week my body finally realized that it’s actually pregnant… and 8 months pregnant at that. Here’s how that’s broken down in the two biggest areas: sleep and running.

Sleep: I am tiiiiiired. This is a couple different things: 1) just tired 2) waking up in the middle of the night/early morning sometimes and then not being able to go back to sleep either at all or for about 2 hours and 3) heartburn. I’ve never had heartburn before and actually had to ask someone if what I was feeling was it. But when I lay down at night I feel like all my food is sitting at the very top of my throat. It doesn’t hurt but it’s really uncomfortable and makes me feel nauseous. Not so great. I’m going to try to eat smaller dinners and definitely not anything after dinner. I also found that if I prop myself up into a reclined-sitting position I can fall asleep. Then later when I wake up (probably to go to the bathroom) I can transition to normal side sleeping. I’m hoping this helps!

Running: Being tired made running hard last week, but suddenly my body just also felt more uncomfortable. I’m still running but my pace is much slower (probably closer to 11 or 11:30, without the stroller), I sometimes have to take walk breaks, and after about 2.5 miles my belly gets really tight feeling – at which point I always transition to walking. I’ve also noticed that if I’m not keeping certain muscles engaged then baby girl tends to head-slam my bladder and lower regions, which causes some pretty sharp pain. (Note: definitely not pain related to baby, like a cramp or a contraction.) I’m not done running by any means, but I’ll probably drop to 2.5-3 miles a day, depending how I’m feeling. Last week I only ran 13.5 miles, which is about half of what I was running before. whomp whomp

I also fell running last week, when I was out with Leo in the stroller. I was trying to dodge fallen walnuts and the stroller wheels missed them but my ankle did not. I twisted my ankle and skinned my knee, but overall it wasn’t a bad fall. Holding on to the stroller probably slowed my fall and I landed on my knees. Leo is very interested in me having an “ouchie” on my knee, too (he has several). I finished the run fine, cleaned up my knee, and iced and wrapped my ankle as a preventative measure. By the next morning it was a little stiff but totally fine for walking and running. So hooray for that and for pregnancy hormones that relax your joints and make them more flexible for rolling off nuts.

Excitement: yesterday was my last day in the office! Because my office is 2ish hours away from my house, I’ll work from home until baby comes so we don’t have to risk me going in to labor when I’m far away. Originally I was going to go until 37 weeks, but after several weeks were I had to stop and sleep in a parking lot on my drive down, my boss pardoned me early. I’ll miss my coworkers actually (I really like them), but I’m definitely looking forward to not driving for awhile!

Despite the sleeping and slow-down of running, I really don’t feel bad most of the time and I’m still loving being pregnant and feeling baby girl roll around. Sometimes I think she’s flipped and other times I think she hasn’t, so I really have no idea (and will just see what the midwife says on Friday). One month to go (give or take)!

Oh I feel you on the heartburn! The last half of my pregnancy was heartburn-riddled. Have you tried taking Tums? They were my life saver – I went through probably four of the little containers in a 3-month span. I kept one on my nightstand specifically for the PM ‘burn.